How Woody Guthrie became unlikely spokesman for Pacific Northwest

Can you imagine if some big Wall Street firm hired Bernie Sanders to promote investing in the stock market?

That’s sort of what happened 75 years ago when folk legend Woody Guthrie became an unlikely spokesman for hydroelectric power, the Grand Coulee Dam and the promise of greener pastures in the Pacific Northwest.

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But the remarkable story was almost lost in an attic forever.

At the tail end of the depression and the New Deal, the Bonneville Power Administration was looking for a way to sell the idea of hydropower, irrigation and the Grand Coulee Dam to the voters of the Northwest.

A producer for the agency came up with the idea of a documentary with someone famous.

“They wanted to tap into this idea of folk singing common man as the narrator or spokesman. So who better than Woody Guthrie,” said Greg Vandy, host of the Roadhouse on KEXP, and the author of a brilliant new book called “26 songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest.”

“At the time Woody Guthrie was in sort of a winter of discontent in early 1941, living in Los Angeles. And he was unemployed and married with three kids,” Vandy said.

Guthrie needed a gig. But the bosses weren’t sure if an outspoken Socialist – the Bernie Sanders of his day – was the best for the job.

But he drove up to Portland anyway and with the help of the producer, talked his way into a deal and signed on to bang out 26 songs in just 30 days.

“You know, it wasn’t like he wrote the White Album in 30 days,” Vandy said. “He used traditional melodies as the base of his songs, but he was able to distill the idea of what the Columbia River projects were all about and also wrote beautiful, almost love letters to the Northwest.”

They would eventually become some of Guthrie’s most iconic songs and immortalize the Northwest for the rest of the nation.

Songs like “Pastures of Plenty,” “The Grand Coulee Dam” and the classic “Roll on Columbia.”

Vandy says it was one of the most productive periods of Guthrie’s career. But it almost didn’t come to be.

The documentary got made with one of his songs in it but was shelved because of World War II and the end of the new deal.

The avowedly socialist singer would be blacklisted as the political climate changed and he became persona non-grata with the feds.

It wasn’t until the BPA started planning for its 50th anniversary in the 80’s that Guthrie’s Northwest legacy would come to light.

Vandy says an audio-video guy named Bill Merlin discovered the film in a box somewhere and stuck it on a projector to see what it was about.

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“And he realized there was a Woody Guthrie song in there, and there was Woody Guthrie in the credits. And then he realizes that Woody Guthrie actually worked there,” Vandy said.

Merlin went searching for other artifacts in the attic from the musical legend and hit the jackpot: 17 original acetate recordings of songs Guthrie wrote and recorded during his month in the Northwest.

“That was thrilling and one of the best discoveries was his actual vocal version of ‘Roll On Columbia,’ which no one had known he had actually recorded before. Everyone knew the song from other people, or songbooks or school,” Vandy said.

Stories like that have captivated Vandy for years, which he chronicles in detail in the new book.

He hopes it brings widespread awareness of what he says is Guthrie’s unprecedented musical contribution to Northwest history.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s groundbreaking visit to the Pacific Northwest.

Along with the book, a number of special activities are planned.

Friday night, Vandy will hold a reading and discussion at Seattle’s Town Hall with award-winning Seattle rock writer Charles Cross. It’ll also feature performances of the lost songs.

On May 26, there will be a concert at Benaroya Hall featuring a number of great musicians including Dave Alvin of the Blasters, John Doe from X, Shelby Earl and more.

Vandy will host a special Woody Guthrie Day at Grand Coulee Dam on May 28 featuring film screenings on the dam itself, book readings and song performances.

Sadly, Guthrie never saw how much of a mark he would ultimately leave on the Northwest and America.

He suffered from Huntington’s disease the last 17 years and stopped playing music altogether. It was only after his death his true legacy would come to life, Vandy said.

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